Teen gets 30 years for DUI crash

Nineteen year-old Joshua Harris of Pace was sentenced to 30 years in prison and ten years probation Tuesday for the deaths of two young women and seriously injuring two others in a car accident on June 13.

Shana Marie Sanders, 22, and Amanda Pearl Davis, 21, were killed when Harris traveling at a high speed, rear-ended the SUV they were passengers in causing it to flip several times.

Harris, who was intoxicated at the time of the accident, plead guilty in the case to two counts of DUI manslaughter and two counts of serious bodily injury in December.

Family and friends of Sanders and Davis were present in the Santa Rosa County courtroom Tuesday for the hearing, some to speak in the girl’s behalf.

Jane Simmons, who was to be Sanders’ future mother-in-law, prepared a letter, which was read to the court by a pastor from her church.

In the letter she stated, “We will never have the chance to hear [Shana’s] laugh or see her beautiful smile that lit up the room. We will never know what she could have done with her life and the life she would have shared with her daughters. Nor will she have the beautiful wedding she was planning. Our son will never be allowed to share his life with his adolescent sweetheart, love of his life, and robbed of a family unity with their child.”

Simmons says the family was asking the judge to impose the full sentence of 40 years with no probation, instead Judge Thomas R. Santurri gave Harris twelve years for each life taken and six more for both the driver of the SUV and Harris’ passenger, who survived the accident but were critically injured.

Reflecting on the sentence Simmons says, “I think if you look back over the years we’re making progress. In the past, the sentence would have been ten years. Things are changing, but unfortunately we need to make a big change, and change a lot of laws.

One of those changes, Simmons says, is stricter punishments for repeat offenders. Harris was involved in a prior incident pertaining to alcohol as well as several traffic violations.

She says she was shocked to find that many people charged with this crime in Santa Rosa had prior records of alcohol abuse and were on probation for DUI. Simmons says she wants to see zero tolerance on all DUI cases in the county.

“They don’t understand, she says, “it’s not just the life they take, it’s those left behind.” In the case of Sanders this includes her two daughters, three year old Taylor, and ten month old Allyssa.

The accident occurred on June 13 around 10:40 p.m. at Lori Lane and Highway 90 in Milton.

The Florida Highway Patrol reports Harris was driving a 2004 Honda 2-door west bound in the outside lane when he struck the back of a 2003 Chevy SUV.

Troopers say the impact caused the SUV to begin rotating clockwise. It traveled onto the westbound shoulder of Highway 90 and began flipping. Sanders and Davis were ejected from the vehicle.

Sanders was pronounced dead at the scene by a Baptist LifeFlight Paramedic, and Davis was transported to West Florida Hospital where she died the next day.

A third occupant of the SUV, Jonathan C. Schaefers, 24, was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital in critical condition and survived. Officials reported no one in the SUV was wearing their seatbelt at the time of the crash.

In the car with Harris was 18 year-old Rebecca N. Norman who was critically injured but also survived.

Both Norman and Harris, who sustained only minor injuries, were wearing their seatbelts.

Harris’ long list of traffic violations prior to the accident included speeding, expired tag, running a stop sign, not wearing a seatbelt, and disobeying lane direction control.